Alarm Substances and Alarm Behavior in Social Insects

Abstract

This chapter discusses alarm behavior in social insects—that is, their ability to inform their nest mates of an enemy attack. It describes the social Hymmoptera in details, because only few investigations have been performed on the danger alarm of the equally social living termites. The social insects have become one of the most successful types of terrestrial creatures on account of their highly developed social structure. Many of them, especially termites and numerous ants, are serious competitors of human beings. The relatively crude and frequently unphysiological measures taken to combat social insects are often ineffectual. If, however, it becomes possible to understand and imitate their language, man will have a weapon enabling him to confound them with their own words, and thus to hold them in check. There is no doubt that this feat, quite apart from the purely scientific interest connected with the problem of communication, is a weighty incentive for continuing research in this field.